Fortune Hotel (tpb)

Interesting idea at work here, as editor Champion has assembled seventeen stories, most fiction, but some true, based on the idea of travel. That is to say, writing about how travel affects people, as opposed to traditional travel narrative-almost all involve drugs, sex, or violence. My favorite stories were Helena Mulkerns' "Shiprock," Toby Litt's "My Cold War," Douglas Coupland's "She Swallowed Her Pearls on the Day of the Revolution," Geoff Dyer's "Horizontal Drift," and Emer Martin's "Sacrificial Shoe." None of these, however, beats William Sutcliffe's true tale, "The Institute." John King's "The Beast of Marseille" is based on the English fans visiting Marseille for the 1998 World Cup. While it is mostly in keeping with his excellent books (The Football Factory, Headhunters, England Away), his portrayal of two exploitative journalists is totally over-the-top clumsy and mars the tale. As a whole, this collection is an interesting take on what travel means to people of my generation, as well as good way to sample some England and Ireland's most interesting young writers.